HEREFORDSHIRE MAMMAL GROUP AUTUMN NEWSLETTER (September-December 2017)

What’s Inside? Contact: Dave Smith for directions and to confirm attendance Title Page Monday, 25 September 2017 at 13.00 and 19.00 Autumn Events 1 Bat Box Check and Trapping at Lime Kilns - Lea Membership 1 and Paget’s Wood New Members 2 Meet in lay-by at the side of road at SO595346 News in Brief 2 Contact Denise Foster via HMG Bat Co-ordinator Update 5 Dormouse Co-ordinator Update 7 OCTOBER 2017 Water Shrew Project 8 HMG Contacts 9 Wednesday, 11 October 2017 at 10:00 Bat Box Check - Lea and Paget’s Wood Meet in lay-by at the side of road at SO595346 Contact Denise Foster via HMG AUTUMN EVENTS (Events are subject to being updated – please Thursday, 12 October 2017 at 19.15 check the website and Facebook regularly) AGM followed by 5 short presentations on Local HMG Projects SEPTEMBER 2017 Venue: Bunch of Carrots Pub at Hampton Bishop, HR1 4JR Monday, 4 September, 2017 19.30 Bats and Roadside Mammal Survey - Analook NOVEMBER 2017 Training Venue: Hom Green, Ross on Wye Saturday, 11 November, 2017 – 10.00 to 16.00 Contact David Lee via HMG Bone ID workshop with Ric Morris Venue: Hampton Bishop village hall Tuesday, 5 September 2017 at 10:00 Numbers will be limited so booking is essential Bat Box Check - Lea and Paget’s Wood There will be a charge for this event Meet in lay-by at the side of road at SO595346 Contact: Leigh Russell via HMG Contact Denise Foster via HMG DECEMBER 2017 Monday, 18 September 2017 at 10:00 Bat Box Check – The Doward Wednesday, 13 December 2017 at 19.00 White Rocks and Woodside HNT Reserves, HMG Christmas Social - Eating, Drinking, Meet at Miner’s Rest Car Park at SO553158 Bowling & Rock n Rolling in Hereford Contact: Mike Bailey via HMG Venue: MFA Bowl, Station Approach, Hereford

Friday, 22 September 2017, 09:30 HR1 1BB

Dormouse Box Check Contact Leigh Russell via HMG

Ast Wood Contact: Dave Smith for directions and to MEMBERSHIP confirm attendance Leigh Russell, Membership Secretary

Saturday, 23 September 2017, 09:30 We currently have 81 paid up members in HMG Bat Box Check and 262 followers on Facebook. Remember, if Ast Wood join the Mammal Society and get HMG subs someone to replace an existing incumbent, then free! nominations need to be sent to the Secretary (Mike Bailey) no later than two weeks before the Facebook - HMG has an active Facebook page AGM. where we post all our events past and present: www.facebook.com/groups/222077991279736/ There will not be a charge for the meeting but we will appreciate donations to help cover the hiring of the room. NEW MEMBERS

We would like to welcome the following new Hedgehog Festival – Ross on Wye members to HMG:

Hazel Pickering Fred Taylor Bartolomeu Bueno Cunha John Powell Scott Brown Porscha Thompson Lorna Price Linda Moseley

NEWS IN BRIEF

HMG’s Annual General Meeting, 2017

HMG’s Annual General Meeting is to be held on Thursday, 12 October 2017 at 19.15 at the Bunch of Carrots, Hampton Bishop, HR1 4JR.

The formal AGM business will be followed by 4 ten minute presentations about the work we have carried out this year. There will also be a short presentation about the new Water Shrew project.

Presentations include: Family Fun Day at the Hedgehog Festival in Ross- on-Wye and learn how to be a Hedgehog Hero, Dormouse Project buy and make hedgehog-themed arts and crafts Bats and Swifts in Churches Project including homes made by local children, learn Woodland Bat Project (including the Radio- how to create wildlife gardens, come face to tracking Project) face with birds of prey, listen to hedgehog- Introduction to the Water Shrew Project themed stories and so much more! Bats and Roadside Mammals Driven Transects Check out Facebook on @festivalhog for more The Committee are proposing to change the details or www.playross.com/hedgehog- subscription fees for 2017 which will be notified festival.html at the meeting.

The present committee are all willing to stand for another year but if any member wishes to join as a new committee member or nominate

2

UK Biodiversity Indicators Report from the BBC Countryfile were filming at this years Hay JNCC-DEFRA (2017) Festival. During the week, Ellie Harrison took Martin Brown, author and illustrator of the book ‘Lesser Spotted Animals’, on a special safari of the Wye Valley. Armed with their sketch books they headed to Mabley Farm in Woolhope Dome on a wildlife drawing safari. On the top of their safari list were the Wild Honey Bee, the Wood White butterfly and the Hazel Dormouse. David Lee and Denise Foster were able to introduce the team to two very adorable dormice.

HMG at Local Events

HMG were represented at two shows this summer, Blossom Day at HWT’s Pool Ellock Nature Reserve and also at the Hampton Bishop Village Fete.

Photo: Taken from JNCC-Defra Website (Sep17)

JNCC-DEFRA are committed to developing indicators to report on progress towards meeting international goals and targets. The 2017 UK Biodiversity Indicators Report is now available from http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page- Photo: Hampton Bishop Village Fete 4229 Pine martens in Herefordshire HMG on BBC Countryfile There have been no confirmed sightings of Pine martens in Herefordshire for many years but this may change in the near future. There is now an established population of Martens to our west in Wales thanks to the efforts of the Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) and their recent translocations of over forty animals from the expanding populations in Scotland. In the north, the Shropshire Mammal Group (SMG) and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust (SWT) have discovered a small number of martens on the Herefordshire, Shropshire border near Clun, which they have been monitoring for a number of years now, and down in the south east the Gloucestershire Photo: Denise Foster and David Lee filming with Ellie Wildlife Trust (GWT) are hoping to replicate the Harrison and Martin Brown from BBC Countryfile VWTs work in the Forest of Dean. They have a dedicated member of staff who is working on their own Pine marten project and if all goes

3 according to plan, they will begin to re-introduce detailed information including which martens into the FOD in the autumn of 2018, organizations you volunteer with, licence status some of these animals will almost certainly cross or whether you are about to start training, the border into Herefordshire soon after their whether you are a bat rehabilitator and your release. With all these neighboring Martens at frequency of handling bats. our borders, it is only a matter of time before we have our own wild population of Pine martens in The new risk assessment is completed by the Herefordshire. practice nurse/doctor to determine whether the subject is at risk of contracting rabies which will include the frequency of handling bats. Clearly vaccination will only be provided if the applicant is considered to be at significant risk. If you wish to be able to handle bats at Mammal Group events you will need to be vaccinated against rabies. However, HMG is often asked for a reference by the doctors surgery justifying the free rabies vaccination. With immediate effect HMG will only provide a reference for those members who demonstrate a level of commitment towards working with bats.

Pine marten credit Robert Cruickshanks Full details and forms can be found below:

With this in mind, the Herefordshire Wildlife www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies- (HWT) Trust are beginning to develop their own pre-exposure-prophylaxis-guidelines Pine marten project. Herefordshire Mammal group were invited to the first meeting of the www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies- Herefordshire Pine marten project, which was pre-exposure-request-form also attended by representatives from the VWT, GWT, SWT, SMG, Woodland Trust, Forestry Post-exposure guidelines and risk assessment Commission, National Trust, and the Welsh have also been updated. beaver project. The project will be focused around the Marches area of the county adjacent www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies- to the Shropshire Pine marten sightings. The post-exposure-prophylaxis-management- early stages will involve surveying and guidelines monitoring the area for martens which may already have entered the county, and public www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies- engagement. This could be followed by making post-exposure-risk-assessment-form-and- and erecting den boxes and possibly introducing calendar animals into the area in the future if there is www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies- thought to be a need and suitable sites can be risk-assessment-treatment-after-exposure-to- identified. At some stage the HWT and HMG will bats be looking for volunteers to assist with the initial surveying of the area. The pre-exposure risk assessment form only applies to volunteer batworkers. However, Public Health England - New Rabies according to the NHS Choices Rabies webpage: Pre-Exposture Prophylaxis Form "If you need the vaccine because there's a risk you could be exposed to the infection through Public Health England has just issued new your job, you might be able to have the guidelines for requesting pre-exposure rabies vacconation for free. Ask your employer or prophylaxis. In order to obtain rabies vaccine occupational health department about this.” free-of-charge your GP or Practice Nurse now must submit a risk assessment form for each www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Rabies/Pages/preventio subject. Bat workers must now provide more n.aspx

4

Bat Co-ordinator Update by Denise Foster

Bats and Swift in Churches Project

HMG has carried out preliminary surveys at 18 new churches, 5 Volunteer Bat Roost Visits and monitoring checks at Pembridge and Wellington Church during the summer. There has also been a joint effort for carrying out swift surveys with Herefordshire Ornithological Club which has resulted in 46 swift surveys. Photo: Two resident brown long-eared bats inside the tower at Staunton-on-Wye church.

Goodrich Castle – Bat Survey

Ten HMG members were lucky enough to carry out a bat survey at Goodrich Castle in July this year. Using IR cameras and night scopes, members saw a colony of Natterer's bat emerge from the Keep and recorded a total of 6 species of bat, including both horseshoes. The staff at the castle are very pro their wildlife which is reassuring for the bats future.

Photo: Courtesy of English Heritage Goodrich Castle Website.

Photo: Both bat boxes inside the bell chamber contained HWT Members Event – Bats at Bodenham long-eared bat droppings. Lake

During the swift survey at Staunton-on-Wye church, the two bat boxes installed inside the tower were checked for uptake. There was evidence in both bat boxes of long-eared bat usage which is good news.

A roost visit took place at Tenbury Wells church in 2015 where HMG recommended the installation of bat and swift boxes as part of the church’s HLF repair grant. The church is now ready to purchase and install boxes and well as making our recommended modifications to the tower to allow bats access. Scaffolding is currently in place so this is the only time this Photo: John Morgan showing HWT members bats in work can be carried out. the hand.

5

A HMG/HWT Bat Trapping Event took place at Berrington Hall Bat Tracking Project – Bodenham Lake on the 26th August. About 15 August 2017 members of HWT turned up to learn more about the bats of Bodenham. The evening was a great success but a little hectic at times to say the least as a total of 72 bats were caught very early on. Species caught were 51 soprano pipistrelles, 3 common pipistrelles, 17 Daubenton’s bats and 1 whiskered bat - 4 species caught but another two were recorded on the bat detectors; noctule and long-eared.

Woolhope Dome Bat Tracking Project – May 2017

The only bat radio-tagged at May’s Bat Tracking event was a ringed BLE from a bat box in Lea and Photo: Berrington Hall near Leominster Paget’s wood. A box of 4 bats were found roosting together; 2 parous females ringed in The radio-tracking at National Trust property 2014 (who routinely roost together), a male and Berrington Hall near Leominister which took a non-breeding female ringed as adults in 2015. place at the beginning of August was a great All 4 four bats were found roosting together success. Two females were caught and again in 2016. Despite the tag being prematurely subsequently fitted with radio-tags funded by groomed off in a roof void of a house SE of the the National Trust, a non-breeding Bechstein's wood (same house as in 2016), after 24 hours, bat and a post-lactating Noctule. It was a gamble we managed to save the project and counted to radio-tag a Noctule due to the distances they out bats from the car port for 3 consecutive can commute, but our female stayed local and nights. A maximum of 12 bats emerged from the she lead us to 5 new tree roosts in and around car port. During the counts bats were observed the grounds of Berrington Hall; she also flying towards the roost entrance and after a introduced us to 27 of her friends. second bat emerged a pair would fly away together – this could possibly be females with their older offspring.

Photo: A breeding female was tagged from a bat Photo: Post lactating female Noctule was radio- box at Lea and Paget’s Wood. tagged during the project

The female Bechstein's bat lead us to 3 new tree roosts and we counted out 41 of her friends. We have to include juveniles in the count which is likely to be 30% to 40% of the total. Some of our bats, particularly our Bechstein's, have had a

6 better year mainly due to the fair weather and HMG continues to check 10 bat box schemes in early spring. Lets hope the damp wet August and the county which has had some interesting September does not set them back too far. results this year. Titley Pool still supports a maternity colony of brown long-eared bats. A Bats and Roadside Mammal Driven new maternity colony of brown long-eared bats Transects has appeared at Brilley Green Dingle and at Frith Wood. Also in addition to the ringed colony of brown long-eared bats in Lea and Paget’s wood a second colony appeared at the August check.

The Bechstein’s bats at Old Country Wood have done well this year. A total of 31 breeding females were encountered and most of them have been successful in producing young this year. A total of 60 bats were encountered at the August box check. Also a new maternity colony of brown long-eareds has turned up in the boxes which is a new record for the wood.

Dormouse Coordinator Update by Ann Bowker

HMG now have two new dormice box schemes; one at HWT’s Titley Pool and also at HWT’s Lea and Pagets where we are working towards replacing some of the old boxes to get the scheme in good order for the NDMP. If you are During the summer 7 HMG members drove a interested in getting involved with either of total of 302.4 miles. The number of records these two sites please get in touch with Ann collected and any highlights will be published in Bowker or Denise Foster via HMG. the next newsletter.

Bat Box Checks

Photo: Torpid dormouse

Tube surveys which took place this year at Badnage Wood, Credenhill and Moorhouse Coppice have so far not shown the presence of dormice. Photo: HMG member Camilla Smith processing a Bechstein’s bat at Old Country Wood

7

Water Shrew Presence/Absence The aim of the survey is to target the areas of Surveying Project by Dave Smith the county which currently hold no records for Water Shrew. These areas will incorporate the River Frome and it’s tributaries to the North- East and the River Dore and it’s tributaries to the South-West. The survey will follow the same protocol as the National Water Shrew Survey which is described in The Water Shrew Handbook (Carter and Churchfield, 2006).

The survey involves making Bait Tubes which will be sited around the edges of water bodies. The tubes are left in-situ for approximately two

Photo: Courtesy of Steve Evans weeks with the hope that the focus species will defecate within the tubes in that time frame. This year, the Herefordshire Mammal Group After two weeks, all droppings are collected, have been extremely fortunate in the receipt of labelled and air-dried to enable analysis by a grant of £840 from Newgrove Trust, for the hand-lens or microscope. purpose of carrying out a survey to establish the presence or absence of Water Shrew in Water Shrew droppings are distinct from other Herefordshire. small mammal droppings by the presence of riparian invertebrate remains. A guide to the The Water Shrew is the largest of the three identification of these remains can be found Shrew species found in mainland UK, the other within Appendix Two of The Water Shrew two being the Pygmy and Common Shrew Handbook (Carter and Churchfield, 2006). (Sorex minutus and Sorex araneus, respectively). The Water Shrew is unique in it’s Once permission has been obtained for the ability to swim and forage underwater and can commencement of survey works on identified be found in the vicinity of any standing or sites, help from volunteers would be greatly flowing body of water. The Water Shrew has a appreciated in the assembling and setting of physical adaptation of stiffened hairs along the Bait Traps. Volunteers will be invited to attend underside of it’s tail which enable it to steer an introduction to the survey. This will be effectively whilst swimming. The same stiff presented at this year’s Annual General hairs can be found on each foot which create a Meeting. greater surface area for propulsion. The survey will run from winter 2017 through The diet of the Water Shrew is comprised to summer 2018, at various sites throughout predominantly of riparian invertebrates such the county. as; crustaceans, fly larvae and other insect nymphs, in addition to, some terrestrial References invertebrates such as Millipedes. The remains of the Water Shrew’s prey form a key Carter, P., Churchfield, S., (2006), The Water identification feature when examining their Shrew Handbook, The Mammal Society faeces.

During the years of 2004 and 2005, a nationwide Water Shrew survey was undertaken, however, as Herefordshire was not included, the records of Water Shrews within the county are incomplete. At present only 40 records are held for the presence of Water Shrew in Herefordshire.

8

HMG CONTACTS

Chairman, Bat Co-ordinator and Newletter Editor – Denise Foster Email: [email protected]

Secretary and Training Co-ordinator Mike Bailey Email: [email protected]

Treasurer - Mike Coleman Email: [email protected]

Small Mammal Co-ordinator – Dave Smith Email: [email protected]

Membership Secretary and Event’s Co- ordinator – Leigh Russell Email: [email protected]

Committee Member and Technical Advisor - David Lee Email: [email protected]

Co-opted Committee Member (Dormouse Co-ordinator) - Ann Bowker Email: [email protected]

HMG Main Email: Email: [email protected]

9